Find your HSN or SAC code

Why the code matters

Every item you sell carries an HSN code, and every service carries a SAC. They decide how the line is reported, and since the May 2025 period Table 12 of GSTR-1 takes these codes from a list rather than as free text — so a code that is not on that list will not go through at filing time.

How many digits you need depends on the size of your business. Set Yearly turnover under Settings → Business & branding and the depth is checked for you; leave it blank and the check cannot run, because the right length is not the same for everyone.

Search by what you sell

You do not need to know the number. The HSN/SAC field on an item searches the list by description.

1. Go to Products → the item you want, or Products → New.
2. Click the HSN/SAC field and type what the thing is — “wheat flour”, “notebook”, “construction”.
3. Pick a row. The code fills the field, and the description beside it is the official wording rather than ours.
4. If you already know the number, type the digits instead — the closest codes come up, best match first.

The official wording is the tariff's, not everyday speech: 1101 is “WHEAT OR MESLIN FLOUR”. Typing “wheat flour” still finds it, because every word you type only has to appear somewhere in the description, in any order. It is not spelling-tolerant though — each word has to be right.

Where the list comes from

Goods come from the HSN directory the GST portal publishes for its own HSN search — the same list the portal's dropdown is built from. Services come from CBIC's classification scheme for services. No description here is written or filled in by us.

The list is stored with the product rather than fetched while you type, so the field behaves the same whatever your connection is doing.

When your code is not on the list

You can still type it and save it. A code the list does not carry gets a warning and a confirm, not a refusal.

That is deliberate. The list is what the portal had published on the day it was last taken, and a notification can add a code before the list has been refreshed. Being asked to look twice is useful; being locked out of your own item is not.

If two codes both look right, that is a question for your CA. The search will show you both — it will not tell you which one your goods fall under.